April 26, 2016

Professor Phillip Wankat, the Clifton L. Lovell Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Education, was one of three recipients of the 2016 Morrill Award from Purdue University.

The Awards were announced Monday (April 25) at the Faculty Awards Convocation for three professors whose careers have demonstrated excellence in their teaching, research and engagement missions.

In his 46 years on the Purdue faculty, Professor Wankat has interwoven teaching, research and service at a rare level, garnering a high number of awards and citations in his two disciplines. Having achieved national recognition in chemical engineering, he then became a pioneer in the emerging discipline of engineering education. He even persuaded Purdue to allow him to earn an MSEd (1982) to complement his engineering degrees (BS Purdue, 1966).

In his technical research, his focus on mass transfer and separation led to more than 190 papers in Chemical Engineering plus two patents. He was editor-in-chief of a prestigious journal for 10 years. He has engaged with industry and produced works that reshaped aspects of distillation. These efforts have brought numerous service awards.

With equal vigor, he has worked to improve the teaching of engineering, and he was selected in 1999 for the inaugural cohort of Purdue's Book of Great Teachers. He has spread the message of engineering education through groundbreaking research articles, dozens of workshops, editorial work and course design. As associate dean, he played a pivotal role in the creation of Purdue's Department (now School) of Engineering Education.

This is the fifth year of the Morrill Award, initiated to honor the Morrill Act of 1862, which allowed for the establishment of land-grant colleges and universities. The award comes with a $30,000 prize, which may be used as discretionary funds or salary supplements.